-‘I’m a visual junkie – an infographics Nerd’. Meet the best infographic artist in the world

Thomas Molén, who created the ‘Best of Show’-graphic in Malofiej this year, has good reason to smile. Now he can – unofficially at least – call himself ‘The best infographic artist in the World’. That is how tough the competition in Pamplona is. You submit your work and go up against the likes of New York Times and National Geographic, with only a small chance to win. But Thomas did it.

When asked how he creates such interesting graphics, he emphasizes his concern for the reader. His basic approach to creating a graphic is his own curiosity and the desire to tell the story to the readers. So when he learns of something, he would like to explore, he spend a lot of time collecting the data, and afterward look at the material to decide which graphic approach is best suited to do the job.

Visual junkie and infographics nerd
Thomas is open for all kind of different methods to tell the story – whether it includes photographs (they are great), illustrations (they are great too), maps (he loves maps) or datavisualizations (he does these too). He is in his own words a Visual Junkie – and an Infographic Nerd.

Combine this with his ability to create something extraordinary, when he presents his material to a live audience, and you are up for an interesting time, when you meet Thomas. His presentation had the the most unusual subtitle – something like: ‘How I got my wife to dress up as a zombie killer and hit me with a plastic sword’. A video of the highlights can be found here at visualjournalism later this week.